Back in 2010, the world watched as 33 miners in Chile worked to survive a period of 69 days trapped inside a closed off copper–gold mine. Now that incident has been turned into a feature film about resilience and strength - and it has a pretty damn impressive cast bringing the script to life. Check out the first international trailer for The 33 below:
Hollywood began showing an interest in telling the story of the 33 trapped Chilean miners mere months after the incident, but as you may have noticed, it's taken quite a while for this film to actually get made. Director Patricia Riggen came on to make the movie all the way back in 2012, and Antonio Banderas became involved in the first half of 2013, but only now is The 33 finally made and getting prepared for theatrical release.
Based on a screenplay wrriten by Mikko Alanne and José Rivera, the film will center on Mario "Super Mario" Sepúlveda (Antonio Banderas), who became well known to the public after the accident due to the daily video logs he would send out informing everyone that he and the other miners were doing okay. As you can see in the trailer - which comes to us from 20th Century Fox's Chilean YouTube channel - the story will not only center on the group of miners trapped below the Earth, but also the strife and politics above ground surrounding the effort to get them out.
I must admit, my feelings on this trailer are a bit mixed. One the one hand, there is obviously a lot of drama to wring out of this situation, and it looks like the filmmakers and cast are getting every last drop. Unfortunately, there is a lot about this preview that also feels cloying and emotionally manipulative. I'm hoping that's just a result of the entire story being condensed into a timeframe under three minutes, but then again there are a lot of true-story based dramas that wind up falling into this trap.
As alluded to earlier and highlighted in the trailer, Antonio Banderas is definitely not the only awesome actor who has been employed to tell this dramatic true story. Also in this awesome ensemble are Lou Diamond Phillips, Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche and Gabriel Byrne.There was word at one point that Martin Sheen would also be in the movie, but that no longer seems to be the case.
When we might actually get to see The 33 in theaters here in America remains an unanswered question. This Chilean trailer was released because the movie will be heading to the South American country on August 6th - but Fox has not yet announced a domestic release date for the project. As more info becomes available, you'll be sure to find it here on Cinema Blend.
